SSP Pathankot Rakesh Kaushal said over phone that Airman Sunil Kumar (24), a resident of Jodhpur, has been arrested and a local court has sent him to 10 days' police remand.
A cyber squad of the air base had put him under surveillance and his emails to the woman, registered as Meena Raina, was found on the internet, Kaushal said.
IAF officials then handed him over to police, he said.
"The woman had contacted him on the social-networking media first, made friends with him and started paying him for the information," the SSP said.